Thierry Breton, France’s commissioner to the European Union, resigned on Monday, criticizing Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, for what he called “questionable governance.”
Mr. Breton’s surprise move came a day before Ms. von der Leyen, a conservative German politician who secured a second term in July, was expected to announce her new team to lead the European Union’s executive arm over the next five years.
The resignation adds to the difficulties she has encountered forming a top team. The bumpy start is a measure of the challenges Ms. von der Leyen faces, especially in areas such as defense and the economy, as the European Union deals with the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its still weak post-pandemic economy.
It also reflects the more complicated the political landscape in Europe, where elections in June gave harder-right forces more power in the European Parliament and have sown domestic divisions in significant countries like France and Germany.
Ms. von der Leyen has already pushed back her announcement of the 27 commissioners to make up the European Commission, with each E.U. member state getting one leadership slot. The commissioners act almost like a national cabinet, with each leader overseeing a policy area, including climate, trade and migration.
She had asked member countries to nominate both men and women for commission roles. After most countries nominated only men, several countries, under pressure from Ms. von der Leyen, in recent weeks switched their nominations to female candidates. Slovenia, embroiled in a domestic political dispute, has not yet named a commissioner.
President Emmanuel Macron of France had nominated Mr. Breton to serve as the country’s commissioner. But in a resignation letter posted on social media, Mr. Breton, who served as the E.U.’s internal markets commissioner, said that Ms. von der Leyen had pressured France to nominate another candidate in exchange for a stronger portfolio.
Relations were known to be frosty between Ms. von der Leyen and Mr. Breton, who has a reputation in Brussels for being outspoken and not always toeing the party line. On Monday Mr. Macron nominated Stéphane Séjourné, his close ally and France’s departing foreign minister, to replace Mr. Breton.
“In light of these latest developments — further testimony to questionable governance — I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties in the College,” Mr. Breton wrote, referring to the commission.
Mujtaba Rahman, the managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a consultancy, said that having to go back to the drawing board and name another candidate was a clear sign of France’s new weakness within the E.U. and Mr. Macron’s weakened standing at home.
Far-right forces came out on top in France’s elections in June for the European Parliament, prompting the French president to call snap legislative elections that resulted in months of political paralysis.
“It’s very rare for a country to propose a candidate and then to be asked to send a second candidate to be considered,” Mr. Rahman said. “The fact there was a bit of friction over the personality and the mandate does raise a question about why that happened and what that tells us about the agency Macron is currently enjoying in Europe.”
Ian Lesser, the head of the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, said that there had been resentment in some quarters of Ms. von der Leyen’s cabinet, including from Mr. Breton, toward her centralized style of leadership.
“Strong, capable figures in the European system are inevitably less comfortable with strong centralized direction from the top,” he said. Still, her leadership style was key to her effectiveness over the past five years, he said.
Last month, Mr. Breton sent Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, a letter warning him about the spread of hateful content and disinformation on his site ahead of Mr. Musk’s live-streamed interview with the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Breton had not informed the European Commission in advance that he would be publishing that letter, according to a Commission spokesman, and E.U. officials had been concerned that the letter came across as interfering with the U.S. election.
The letter only added to the longstanding animosity between Mr. Breton and Ms. von der Leyen, said Susi Dennison, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Paris.
The Élysée said on Monday that Mr. Séjourné had met all required criteria for the job and thanked Mr. Breton for his contribution. Under his leadership, the E.U. had begun an investigation into the potentially addictive effects that Instagram and Facebook, owned by the tech giant Meta, have on children. E.U. regulators could ultimately fine Meta up to 6 percent of its global revenue and require other changes.
Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at the Bruegel Institute, a European research institute, said that Mr. Séjourné could bring new perspective to the European Commission, particularly if he’s more collaborative than Mr. Breton.
Mr. Tagliapietra said Mr. Breton had been a heavy weight, meddled in many areas, spoke his mind and challenged Ms. von der Leyen “often in a very assertive way that Brussels is not used to.” His resignation “could spell good news” for her, he added.
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